This award aims to extend the candidate's growing expertise in socioeconomic dimensions in housing as it relates to health disparities focusing in particular on childhood asthma risk. The candidate completed a fellowship in academic pediatrics, earning an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health in epidemiology, biostatistics and environmental health. Further research training will occur under the supervision of a multi-disciplinary Advisory Committee with expertise in asthma, life stress, housing, allergens, immunology, and qualitative research. Career development will be enhanced through course work and participation in seminars and research on stress and housing factors. This award, along with the candidate's clinical and scientific background, will facilitate the development of a successful independent research career with a focus on the epidemiological study of the influence of both social and physical dimensions of housing conditions on childhood asthma morbidity in the inner city. While many epidemiological studies describe associations between poor housing and health (including asthma), none have considered the psychological dimension of housing quality either independently or in combination with physical housing characteristics as related to asthma risk. The investigators hypothesize that children exposed to higher level housing stress will be at greater risk for asthma/wheeze syndromes, independent of other life stressors (e.g., neighborhood disadvantage or violence) and exposures associated with poor housing (e.g., cockroach or rodent). Furthermore, they hypothesize higher-level housing stress, assessed annually in the first three years of life, will predict subsequent increased total IgE levels and allergen-specific lymphocyte proliferative response in the child at age 3 years controlled for these other risk factors. Study of the relative importance of housing stress in urban populations may result in more targeted housing interventions and policy change to impact public health.
| Suglia, Shakira Franco; Duarte, Cristiane S; Sandel, Megan T (2011) Housing quality, housing instability, and maternal mental health. J Urban Health 88:1105-16 |
| Suglia, Shakira Franco; Franco Suglia, Shakira; Duarte, Cristiane S et al. (2010) Social and environmental stressors in the home and childhood asthma. J Epidemiol Community Health 64:636-42 |
| Sandel, M; Wright, R J (2006) When home is where the stress is: expanding the dimensions of housing that influence asthma morbidity. Arch Dis Child 91:942-8 |
